It genuinely does break my heart to know there is such hatred and condemning is being thrown at Studio Orange and the Stargaze team because it's so clear this was not made as a hollow adaptation for money without passion, it's painfully clear the team loves Trigun.
The fact that repeatedly they tell fans "if you got into Trigun through our show, then please go read the manga too" and express how they love the original material, even how exciting it was to speak with Nightow about the manga shows they truly do love this series. They never wanted to replace the original story, they wanted their show to bring a new take to the story and introduce more people to Trigun. They dared to do something rarely seen in anime, that is more common with western adaptations, where they didn't do a one-to-one adaptation and instead sought to remix and engage with the original story in a new way as fans of the material.
Even if it wasn't executed well or the way people wanted, seeing them be thrown constant hate, a lot of it unwarranted, and even death threats is deeply upsetting. The team worked with what they were given, a single 12 episode season and they put their all into doing their best with that. This is far from a Voltron or Game of Thrones situation despite what people may make it seem like. You can not like Stargaze, you can even hate it, and criticism is justified, trust me I have plenty. But to act like this was some kind of cashgrab hollow show is just wrong and to attack the team for it is even moreso. Like others have said, for a fandom about a series centered on Love and Peace there seems to be little among it.
Vash is a nightmare to sleep with in the early days of your relationship. Much to your chagrin, the humanoid typhoon is a natural disaster both when he is awake and when he slumbers. He's hoggin' pillows, he's stealing your sheets, smacking you in the face with his outstretched arm. Not to mention, his incessant turning this way and that every five minutes. It's a miracle you manage to get any sleep at all.
But on some nights, Vash is uncharacteristically quiet. He drifts to sleep with clammy skin and a forlorn "goodnight". At this point you know you're in it for the long haul. Vash sleepwalks on those nights. Every. Single. Time.
Sometimes, Vash leaps out of bed in an unconscious frenzy. Rummaging. Restless. Tearing up the room. When you call his name, he doesn't stop, doesn't seem to even know you're there. He mutters to himself. Repeating the names of people he's lost. Over and over again, like a haunting, broken mantra. And then, on the worst nights, Vash sobs, confessing the devastating feelings he'd never reveal to another living soul. Shattering that smiling mask he wears each and every day. Right before your very eyes.
"Rem...Rem...should I have even been born?"
Luckily, each night Vash gets like this, the remedy is the same. You slide out of bed, softly talking to him as you approach. You remind him of the good things he's done, about the people he's helped, and the ones he is going to help. Vash never responds, but he listens. Like a rock against blowing sand he stands still. And slowly, with each gust of your breath, the grains of your words wear away at his rigid flesh. Tearing down the walls around his lonely heart. Then finally, you're able to wrap your arms around him and gently guide Vash back to bed.
While it is not necessarily unique for a protagonist to have a “no killing” rule trigun is very unique in the way that it has vash break this self imposed rule and then delve into the aftermath
And- Vash choosing to kill legato (at least in the manga) isn’t treated as this lesson about how his morals are pointless and that killing is necessary, instead it’s treated as a tragedy
Vash mourns the fact that he couldn’t find another way to deal with legato and he mourns himself and the fact that the one thing he was clinging to the one choice he felt he had was taken away
And his friends mourn with him! They are absolutely heartbroken that hes had to do this
Idk i just haven’t seen any other piece of media go about the morality of killing this way
hc if reader has lived as long as vash has? like probs got almost the same if different skillset like vash does for all the years they've been around. also possible angst! what if reader is a fake independent Plant! and what if vash finds out! ideas ideas hmmmm
He always wondered what it would be like to find someone who shared the same eternity as he did. Someone who, like him, had seen the years pass, cities rise and fall, and yet remained standing, immortal and unwavering. When he found you, he felt an immediate connection, something he had never experienced before. You were different, but at the same time, so similar to him. Vash looked at the reader with a mix of curiosity and recognition. He knew there was something special about this person, something that went beyond appearance. Over time, he discovered that the reader was also a Plant, an independent creation, but with a crucial difference: the reader was a false independent Plant. This revelation brought a flood of emotions for Vash. He knew what it meant to be different, to be seen as an aberration, and he didn't want the reader to go through that. "You knew from the beginning, didn't you?" the reader asked, their voice laden with an anguish that Vash knew well. "You knew I wasn't like the others." Vash nodded slowly. "Yes, I knew. But that doesn't change anything. You are as real as I am, as important as anyone else." The years they spent together were a mix of adventures and challenges. Both possessed extraordinary abilities, the result of their long lives and accumulated experiences. While Vash was known for his skill with weapons and his ability to heal quickly, the reader had a unique talent for manipulating the energy around them, creating barriers and healing wounds with a simple touch. But with these abilities also came painful memories. Vash knew that the reader carried invisible scars, marks of a past full of losses and sacrifices. He saw it in the reader's eyes, the same pain he felt himself. And it was this mutual understanding that brought them even closer. "Sometimes, I wonder if it's worth it," the reader confessed one night, while they watched the stars. "Living so long, seeing so many things, losing so many people..." Vash placed a comforting hand on the reader's shoulder. "I wonder that too. But then I look at you, and I see that I'm not alone. And that, for me, makes it all worth it." The discovery of the reader's true nature didn't change how Vash saw them. On the contrary, it only strengthened the bond between them. Together, they continued to face the world's challenges, knowing that, no matter what happened, they would always have each other. And in that shared eternity, they found a purpose and a reason to keep fighting.
Another draft for the fanfic I wanted to try writing down. Again not edited bc I am still at work just writing down ideas. This time Imma split it in two parts tho, one focusing on exploring readers own defensiv strategies while also bonding with our beloved ex insurance worker and now reporter Meryl :3
The second part is again some fluff with Vash obviously and I might also trow in some Wolfwood and or Roberto interactions for the sake of writing them.
I still need to do more researche and draw more concepts for this fanfic to actually start so imma just bomb you with scenarious that I might or might not will later trow in the real book. Also yes I will probebly trow in isekai reader but thats just an idea for now
Enjoy!
The tension in the air was almost suffocating. The room was painfully silent aside from the faint sobbing of children and their mothers trying calm them down, voice trembling in fear.
Y/N knew this scenario more than she did like to. The bandits that held the bank hostage that she and Merly entered some hours ago were having an heated argument in back of the room while the other hostages nerves were tested at the fearful image that was infront them. The bandits had shot one of their own comrades that didn’t want to share with them and now was laying dead in his own puddle of blood.
Human brains worked the same no matter which dimension they were in. It didn’t matter if it was on Earth or here on Gunsmokes Criminals were always mentally scared beeings, so if stressed some tended to use the only form of problem solving they knew.
That just happened to be violance.
Back at home before she crashed the dessert here some weeks prior she was studying exactly that, using her observant nature and her deep interest in crime to become a profiler.
In a world where Guns and Violance was dominating the planet having the abilitys she possesed, analyzing heavior and seeing the patterns while also manipulating people to let her be, that was her ultimate weapon to stay alive. since the only other weapon she had was a metalic pipe and that barely worked against a fully armed bandits.
She stayed silent most of the event, looking around and calmly observing her surroundings. Originally there were three bandits. Two dominat ones and one subbmissiv guy. Right as they started this whole trouble she knew from experience some shit would eventually go down since most of the time criminals only could operate in groups with one dominat member that so happen to have submissiv sidekicks, so seeing the two man bicker over the leader role already set of the alarm bells in her mind.
Meryl meanwhile was also surprisingly calm, or at least she tried to be. The reporter wasn’t used to beeing in the middle of conflict. Since she joined Roberto, Vash had always been the center of attetion which made it a bit easier for her to stay back and have less stress. But Vash wasn’t here and she was stuck with the only other person on this god forsaken planet that was similar a danger magnet than the blond man himself.
But that didn’t stop her from keeping herself cool. Seemingly more nervous than her partner beside her but still in a better mental state than the other hostages. For Vash for this matter, who was outside with Roberto and wolfwood. The trio hid in a alleyway near the bank, carefully watching the sheriff and the bankers wife talk about the situation. The blond man was basically a nervous wreck and blamed himself for the capture. Telling himself he should have gone with the two girls or at least get inside to save there asses. But he didn’t let that get through, while his anxious side was bascially ripping his brain apart the gunslinger and rational side of him was already working on a plan.
Y/N didn’t exactly know that but she predicted that he would do something like that. He cared for people too much to just let a hostage happen under his watch. But she knew as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t put all the afford on getting them out on the boys. Which is why she already had an idea.
Prior to them walking off to the bank Roberto gave Meryl one of his darengers, which she thankfully had hidden so good in her coat that as the bandits demanded all weapons to be given to them they couldn’t find one on her. And since she was the only one currently possesing a weapon it was her job to take out the leader while she herself took the side kick.
The screaming of the leader become loud and obnoxious enough that he had all the attetion of the room, so she could whisper to merly without anyone noticing.
“I think I got a plan” she whispered as her eyes were locked on the duo. “You think? What are we supposed to do its two armed gigants against us” she hissed silently in the (h/cs)nettes ears. Y/N hummed agreeing as answer as her eyes roamed the area. “You still have the gun Roberto gave you right” her voice dropping almost inaudible as the word gun rolled of her tongue, playing even more save no one would notice their conversation. Meryl softly nodded before Y/N spoke up again. “When I give you a signal you shoot the gun out of the bigger guys hand. Try not to aim for his fatal spots until really necessary. I take care of the second one…” she laughed air and soundless before looking at me. “He also has a gun how do you want to do that?! As soon as I hurt his boss we are swiss cheese!”
Carefully observing the smaller man as he started to nervously chew on his fingers she smirked. The gun in his hands he held firmly but his finger never was even near the trigger. He flinched every time his boss was pointing at one if the hostages when he spilled empty threats and ealier as he shoot the other bandit he couldnt even look at the corpse.
“That is gonna be childsplay trust me”
-
It didn´t take long until the argument had finally stopped and the bandits attetion was back at their hostages presence. No one dared to move. They didnt need to rope them up since all of the people were scared, scared too shitless to even try to resist. Most silently sobbed, some prayed, others sat in their corners and accepted their envidible doom and Meryl and Y/N meanwhile had gotten their hands on one of the belongings of the bankers inside.
Working in a bank all day takes a lot of time and nerves since its takes full concentration out of someone to carefully count money and take care of the safes in the back. So it wasnt surprising one of them had empty bottles laying around. Collecting laying around juck was less noticable than for example asking the staff memembers for say cigerettes and lighters. It wasnt much but it was enough to cause the bandits to panic.
The leader kicked one of the workers in the face as he held his gun to the poor mans head. “you useless fucks are even less worth than the little to no cash you have laying around in this bullshit bank! Not even the Sheriff wants to pay for your pathetic asses! Fucking useless shits!” he growled in rage as the banker cried and plead for his life. “Please..Please! I have a wife and children at home! Please do..don’t kill me” he maniged to croak out between sobs.
The Bandit puts his finger on the trigger and grinned, in a widely spread and digusting smile. His eyes were could and his eyebrows twitched in amusment. He was getting a kick out of seeing the mans fear, begging him to not pull the trigger. Y/N knew that face and she cursed silently in her head. The man didn’t care for the money anymore. After killing his teammate he started to get a kick out of it.
He started to like killing people.
“fuck it” the girl growled digusted before jumping up, carefully having moved to the blind spot carefully over the past minutes, before trowing the bottle as hard as she could at the back of the leaders head, stunning him for a second as Meryl dashed forward and shot right trough the hand that was holding the gun.
A loud and painful cut trough the silence as blood spat everywhere, leaving the mans head mangled and impaled as the reporter takled his screaming form to the ground and took his gun. Holding both the deringer and the mans own gun to his head, hissing in his hear to stay down or else he would have two more holes in his head to speak shit out from. The other robber meanwhile started to panic and point his gun at her friends head. “Get….get of….off him or else…else I will shoot!” he stuttered out. His eyes were wide and fearful but also paniced. Y/N meanwhile walked slowly between them. Having the gun of the panicking robber pressed against her forhead. As she calmly smiled.
Her calm starring made him seemingly shake more, having the finger on the trigger non stop as he blabbeled more nonsense, trying to threath her. But it was barely understandble english since his stuttering made him almost mess up every word. If she didn´t knew better he almost looked like beeing moments away from having a panic attack.
Shaking, heavy and unsteady breating, increased heartbeat and blurred vision by tears.
Yeah she knew all this systems all too well from her time back home.
Meryl seemed also to sweat, becoming more nervous for her friends safety as she carefully held the man down, recalling her words from ealier.
“childsplay? you are insane!”
She chuckled as she smiled at her “maybe you need to be a little insane to survive here. Ok listen I will stun the leader so you can get a good aim for his hand and dash to hold him down. And no matter what you hear, concentrate on holding the guy down and don’t turn around to me, ok?”
She swallowed hard as she mumbled “you are so fucked up” clenching her eyes shut as she forced herself to concentrate fully on holding the guy down, not looking if her friend would soon be silenced as a shoot would ring.
But it never came. The nervous mumbling of the bandit was interupted by a cutting, clear and cocky sounding.
“you won´t shoot me, you don’t have the guts to do soo”
The gun fell from his almost forcefully shaking hands, right before the cocky grinning Y/N grabbed him and pulled him forwards.
Punching him right in the face, covering her fist with lots of his blood, probebly breaking his nose, before his limp body hit the ground.
You hit a weak spot for me. Vash and companion being kinda touchy/close without officially speaking about it will kill me I swear.
May I suggest…a thing? Take it a step further…? Maybe they’re in a dangerous city and Vash is being super cautious, watchful.
His companion steps close for safety, keeps an eye out for what’s behind him. And he’s got his hand on their lower back, fingers spread. His eyes are focused ahead, razor sharp, and you’d think this is all just for protection, but then companion turns and lets their lips ever so slightly brush against Vash’s jaw in the process.
Vash doesn’t falter in his watchful gaze, but his hand presses a little closer.
Just. It’s there but they’d rather die before actually giving the connection a name yet.
ooooooh nonnie it's so good ahah
i didn't know what to add to it cause it's kind of a complete scenario in my eyes already, so i just concentrated of writing protective vash hehehe 😈
i left enough yearning though, hopefully.
Warnings: none, g/n reader
Word count: 786
Protective Vash and yearning touches
The main road of the town you’ve been wandering about narrows into an alley before either of you realize it.
One turn too quick, one wrong step off the main drag, and suddenly the background town’s noises fade. It's quiet here. Too quiet.
Vash stops first.
You catch the shift in him even before his hand rises - fingers curling around your arm in a silent signal: halt. You freeze beside him, heart picking up, eyes scanning.
This isn't an alley for shortcuts or missed turns. This is an alley where people disappear.
“Looks like we’ve got company,” he murmurs, quiet and dry.
From the shadows ahead, a voice lilts out, oily and amused. “Well now, what’ve we got here? Strangers. Shiny one’s packing heat. What about you, sweetheart?”
More voices. At least three. Maybe more behind crates and broken scaffolding. You don’t see weapons yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
Vash doesn’t let go of your arm. Instead, he shifts his body forward just enough to put himself between you and the voices. Protective, casual, but he’s on edge.
His other hand drops to his gun, he doesn’t draw. Not yet.
“Just passing through,” he says with a smile, smooth as ever. But there’s a sharpness to his words, like steel hidden under silk. “No trouble unless you’re looking for it, we’ve just been searching for a place to stay.”
“Oh, I think you found it,” someone chuckles from the dark.
You step closer, your hand brushing against Vash’s coat. You feel the tension in him like static - his muscles coiled, his breathing slow and even, like he’s steadying himself for whatever comes next.
He doesn’t look at you. But his hand leaves your arm and drifts lower, steadying against the small of your back.
And this time, he grips. Not tight. Not panicked. Just sure. Like he’s saying ‘I’m not letting you go’ without speaking a word of it.
You glance at him - his jaw is clenched, gaze locked forward, but his thumb brushes slow against your spine, once. A grounding gesture.
And something inside you breaks a little.
The figures in the dark are getting bolder now, stepping closer. One whistles, low and mocking. “That one yours, gunslinger?”
Vash doesn’t blink. “Walk away.”
But he doesn’t sound angry.
He sounds calm and dangerous.
The kind of danger that doesn’t need to be shouted. The kind that only comes out when something precious is being threatened. You’re somehow puzzled he’s not trying to be a peacemaker now, but you’re also too tense to dwell on it for long.
Your pulse spikes. You don’t know if it’s fear or the way he’s standing so close - his body angled to shield yours, the heat of him pressed along your side.
You shift - just enough to keep eyes on the side of the alley, just in case someone tries to flank you. And as you do, your face turns into him again. Too close.
Your lips graze the edge of his jaw accidentally. It lasts less than a second.
But you felt it. A breath. That’s all it is.
But he felt it too. You know he did.
Because his hand - firm and unyielding at your back - tightens with deliberate care. Pulls you closer.
Like he needs to know you’re right there, within reach.
You don’t look at him.
And he doesn’t look at you.
You both pretend it didn’t happen, your heart’s now pounding beneath your ribs like war drums.
Another step from the men in the shadows.
And then Vash shifts his weight, stance low and ready. His coat flutters as his arm drops - and this time, he draws.
Fast. Too fast to follow.
“Last chance,” he says, voice like flint. “Go. Now.”
The silence is thick. Then movement - shuffling, muttered curses, someone spitting on the groynd mumbling “This shit’s not worth it”, the scuffle of boots as the men slink away into the shadows.
You both stay still.
He doesn’t holster his gun until the alley is empty again.
When he finally turns to you, his gaze is softer than it should be. “You okay?”
You nod. “You?”
He exhales through his nose, something like a laugh caught behind it. “Ask me again in a few minutes.”
You both step back into the streetlight’s glow, leaving the alley behind – his arm now placed on your shoulders in a friendly manner. He’s not placing too much weight on it however, so it lacks casual flair.
Neither of you speaks about it.
Neither of you names what just happened. But it happened.
And that quiet, constant almost between you just got a little harder to ignore.
An easier to use list for all the kiss prompts for Trigun that I'm going to repost. One of my favorite little series, was 24 Kisses. It turned into 26 kisses where one prompt had two blurbs and well a friend gave me an idea for the final one...
So, I've been thinking about one of the details in Trigun: Stampede that was not present in either '98 or the manga.
In '98, Knives just hacking into the SEEDS codes was left as-is. He walked up to Captain Joey and shot him and apparently took his pilot's seat. Did the Captain have the navigation open at the time? Was it closed and Knives had to do some hacking? Anyway, there, he did it on his own.
Now, in Trigun Maximum, which treats Vash and Knives' childhood differently (just Rem there raising them), there is a foreshadowing of what is to come.
In Volume 6, Rem is depicted waking up to an emergency signal in the middle of her sleeping-hours. (Aw, she sleeps in her regular clothes, mom-jeans and all...). Panicked, she yells at Knives for him and Vash to lock themselves in their rooms and not to come out or speak up for ANY reason, even if they hear voices outside.
She tries to handle the situation, but it goes from bad to worse and the automatic crew-wakening protocol goes into effect, which she is very concerned about (for reasons that we who have read the manga know about)!
In the beginning of Volume 7 the crew wakes up, there's a situation-update. The ships are going off-course and will collide if things are not corrected. They're working through the issues and suddenly, there's an unknown factor that kicks in to correct the course. Rem then gets the crew all settled back in again for nappy-time...
And proceeds immediately to Vash and Knives, where she scolds Knives with (Rem's angry mom-face, my beloved)!
Knives was playing around with the ship codes and systems. He'd apparently hacked his way into the system and was curious about SEEDS' functions. (One would assume that Rem changed some of the codes after this, but I bet they were in some kind of hacking-war, with her trying to stay one step above curious Plant-twins). Knives did not mean to nearly cause a catastrophe, but this shows that he can and is a foreshadowing to when he DOES mean to cause one later.
Now, in Trigun Stampede, it is stated by Nai / Knives that Vash gave him the ship-codes, also that he spent a lot of time and trouble changing the codes for every human ship. (The manga lists the ship they are born on as the Mothership, presumably guiding the entire fleet, in Stampede, it is just Ship 5, which implies multiple guides with multiple navigators).
I am wondering where Studio Orange is going with this.
Will it be a situation like the manga where the kids are just playing around? Little prank-war with Rem? Maybe Vash is sharing a ship code innocently, as part of their games?
Or is it going to be darker, more sinister? I wonder if Vash was originally of the thought of "maybe we need to crash the ships and kill all humans (except Rem) because they're scary and dangerous because of what happened to Tesla" and then had a change of heart and backed out of it? - I can see that happening... him having his cathartic alone-time with Rem as in the manga and then talking things out with Nai and thinking that they weren't going to go through with it. And then Nai betrays him.
I've been wondering about the guilt Vash carries over the Big Fall in Stampede. Is it an unnecessary, undue guilt like he seems to have about a lot of things? Or is there a guilt born from "I had originally planned disaster / we had originally planned disaster" and it came true even after he'd backed out?
It's just that... in both '98 and Maximum, he does carry his cross (that is not Wolfwood's), but he seems to feel less specifically guilty over this (the Big Fall). He's really more like "Knives, how could you do this to everyone / Rem?!" He just seems more guilt-ridden in Stampede than in the other media and I am wondering if there is a dark secret behind it.
I can see it going either way.
Trigun Stampede Exhibition - 2025.03.31 Ikebukuro, Japan
For anyone who may be interested, I took photos of almost the entire Trigun Exhibit in Japan this year. I tried my best to get clear shots of everything. There's some really awesome and inspiring images in here.
All images are on this imgur gallery
Sometimes when I write these posts, I have a fully-formed analysis in place with at least half a dozen citations. And sometimes I'm just throwing half-cooked spaghetti at the wall to see if anything coherent comes out of it.
I'm not actually going to start with the lady of the hour, though. Rather, I'm going to start with Knives. His Stampede version specifically.
You don't necessarily have to read Knives in Stampede as having incestuous desire for his brother, but as long as it is something that can easily be considered, it works to highlight a relationship that has been 'corrupted' so to speak. Knives loves his brother, but he has not been in direct contact with Vash for over a century. A century of time for was once memories of a brotherly bond to become faded, distorted and twisted in on themselves until they have become much more of an obsession then anything healthy.
(If you know anything about gothic horror, you'll know that incestuous coding as a narrative tool has been around for hundreds of years. Humans love our fucked-up little taboos, that's for sure.)
Anyways.
Consider in the manga, the way Rem is initially introduced to the story. She initially gives the impression of being fridged, just another dead lady to motivate the male main character. She's very much not that simple of course, this is Trigun, but importantly her character is only expanded upon outside of Vash's view of her much later in the story. In the early volumes she's very much your archetypal female ghost, so to speak.
And one thing about the fridged female character is that in all her iterations, she's a bit same-y. Often, the difference between 'dead mother' and 'dead sister' and 'dead girlfriend' is nigh impossible to tell without clarification from the text. And outside of some contextual clues, Rem's relationship to Vash is certainly not clarified.
Maybe I'm on to something. Or maybe I'm just primed to see this sort of stuff in media being an emotional incest survivor myself.
The role of a child in society is... somewhat tense to say the least. The idea of being wholly dependent on someone else is typically frowned upon as 'lazy', so it's not uncommon to see the sentiment that children must 'earn' their care by behaving. It's not only something you see from parents either. Often children (especially those disabled and/or nd) may subconsciously play into this sentiment themselves, where the parent becomes viewed as somewhat of a... Jesus figure is probably the best word for it. Someone who must constantly be appealed to, constantly be proud of you, even if they don't ask for it, because otherwise, why should you deserve to exist and be happy?
(I've been recently watching the Blood Blockade Battlefront anime and this sentiment from Vash is also present there too. Nightow is painfully good at writing this flavor of 'right to exist' self-deprecation)
I think this sentiment maps quite nicely to the theme of faith in Trigun as a whole as well. People need something to believe in, something to keep them going and sometimes in the search for that we turn to toxic coping mechanisms or bad role models as a result.
In many ways, the first chapter of Trimax chapter emulates the first chapter of Trigun's original run. We get a page familiarizing us with the legend of Vash, as this ominous figure, and then we get it contrasted with Vash as he truly is.
This contrast has happened twice already, but previously it was this immediate switch from foreboding to goofy. This time, we don't get silly shenanigans, but rather this much more heroic shot of Vash. The switch here is less from serious to silly and more the different perspectives on the legend of Vash - either a malicious bad omen or a heroic legendary gunslinger.
So in some ways, the plot of this chapter is about the collision between these two legends of Vash - hero and villain.
Because of the switch to a new 'season' as such, the positioning of the audience is a bit wonky. We're coming in here familiar with the original manga, but not everyone would share that experience. This is also the time when Trigun switches from shonen to seinen, so many readers would have been exposed to Vash through this 'new' series under the adult literature section.
With that in mind, take for example our introduction to Eriks.
Anyone who's read the original run and is even somewhat astute is going to go "oh yeah that's Vash, duh." Vash still has all his old character traits even in disguise - he has the attitude of half golden retriever, half Muppet expressions, he's pacifistic to a fault, gets into trouble and he even appears to have adopted yet another preteen. The intact left arm could be considered a point of doubt, but it's not like it's ever been an obvious prosthetic in the first place.
But for someone starting here? Well, that hero shot on the chapter title makes it clear that Vash is going to be the hero of this story. But in what way? The title Hero Reborn is quite clever in this regard because it implies Vash is not the hero at the moment. It could mean anything from an antihero being brought back into the light to a hero in hiding. So for them, when the name of the Stampede is dropped, they're likely going to be asking the same question as Wolfwood here.
(You'll notice that the knives in the bounty poster here just so happen to coincidentally cover up Vash's mole, and that Eriks happens to have his glasses obscure said mole as well. Clever!)
That being said, the mystery here really doesn't last long. I'd argue that any chance that this random bandit is Vash is rendered null the moment he rocks up in those shitty glasses.
I'm only half joking here, because even the uninitiated people would have seen the manga covers, and Vash's glasses are a pretty central focal point of his design, especially in the inside one where I'd argue they hold the most graphic weight in the image along with the gun. Getting that so obviously wrong very quickly breaks the ruse.
Plus, then we get the 'bark like a dog' scene, which for something meant to be humiliating ends up being about as much as a hero shot as is possible to get. Heavy use of chiaroscuro, dramatic posing, edgy scars and everyone looking on in shock. All very dramatic.
The golden rule I have when annotating something is to ask why. Why has the author chosen to write this specific phrasing of something, why does this plot beat play out in this particular way, why is this scene framed like this? What message or theme is sent by having things happen this way, rather than any other?
In this case, we've got a contrast here between something that should be humiliating being framed as heroic, if only for a bit. It's a subversion - one that questions the ideal of what heroism even is. Should Vash's dedication to valuing the lives of others and sticking to his moral code be considered heroism, even if it isn't what we conventionally think of it as? The 'hero returns' as such not in a blaze of glory but by being ragdoll'd onto the ground by a gang of bandits.
There's a flip side to this of course, and that's written in the scars we see on Vash's body. His status as this story's protagonist and hero comes with an immense amount of suffering, so much so that when Vash is brought back into his role as the stampede, he does not consider it a victory.
No, he considers it cruel.
"The hounds of hell thrive on trailing the stench of blood and gunpowder."
What I find interesting here is the specific invocation of "the hounds of hell". Metatextually, this gun, this role is meant to be about Vash becoming the heroic good guy again. And yet he couples such a role with hellhounds - demonic entities, as if this is his own personal hell.
To be a hero is a cruel punishment indeed.
🍑🥑Sweet🥑🍑 @sweetpeachyaguacate - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
kianamaiart
stormborns
annaxmalina
origamiaround
jacobvanloon
andulkaphoto
baratheonpilled
